Boeing’s scramble to ramp up production mustn’t go with reduced regulatory oversight
Boeing is racing to roll out more aircraft in response to demand, but the FAA is prematurely returning some certification authority to the company. Given its record on aircraft safety—especially the 737 Max scandal—this could be risky.
Boeing has been getting a flood of aircraft orders, partly because of White House jawboning during tariff negotiations. US President Donald Trump has championed Boeing as the driver of aerospace exports, one of the few industries in which the US has a trade surplus.
The rebound of Boeing’s finances does not hinge on capturing more orders and swelling its backlog. The planemaker’s focus now is to ramp up production and complete the certification work on new aircraft, including its 777X and 737 Max 10.
Increased production will generate cash and put planes into the hands of airlines, which have been forced to fly older jets longer than they want. Increased production, including for the 787 Dreamliner, will solve most of Boeing’s problems.
So it comes with some concern that the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced last week that it was taking initial steps to take the leash off Boeing after the company had been under close regulatory scrutiny following a series of accidents.
The FAA said it would allow Boeing workers to issue certificates that deem a new aircraft safe to operate. Boeing and the FAA will issue these certificates on alternating weeks, the agency said in a statement. The agency was clear that it will continue to have “direct and rigorous oversight of Boeing’s production processes." This move is seen as a step toward authorizing Boeing to increase 737 Max production beyond the current limit of 38 a month.
Boeing’s crucial need to raise production rates is precisely why the FAA must keep a close watch on the company over the next year or two while the planemaker ramps up.
If the FAA doesn’t have enough inspectors to keep up with the workflow, Boeing should pay for the agency to hire more. A lack of inspectors should not impede the ramp-up, but they also shouldn’t be on Boeing’s direct payroll in these early stages.
As a reminder, the company got into trouble in the first place because it was given too much leeway on certifying its own work and ended up deceiving authorities on the 737 Max. A key software addition that wasn’t flagged to the FAA because it could have required extra pilot training led to two fatal crashes.
The pressure to crank out planes also got Boeing into trouble when corners were cut on the factory floor and out-of-sequence work created confusion, resulting in its workers placing a door panel on a new plane without bolts. That door plug blew off during a flight in January 2024, exposing the disarray at Boeing’s production facilities.
Kelly Ortberg, the former chief executive officer of aerospace supplier Rockwell Collins who was hired a year ago to lead Boeing out of its mess, has been doing and saying the right things. He took advantage of a worker strike that shut down production in the Seattle area last year to introduce new manufacturing processes and a culture that put emphasis on quality and safety. He has talked about increasing production methodically and not going to a new level until the workforce and supply chain can handle the increases.
Still, these changes are recent. There is pressure on Boeing from airlines and shareholders to boost output. The financial incentives are to ramp up quickly, even if that’s tempered with the scars of past incidents. Going too slow will disappoint investors and customers. This is why inspectors who aren’t on the company payroll are still needed to ensure that the ramp-up and certifications are done properly.
The FAA said that the return of the Organization Designation Authorization, which allows Boeing to certify functions on behalf of the FAA, is necessary to free up its personnel. “Resuming limited delegation to the Boeing ODA will enable FAA inspectors to provide additional surveillance in the production process," the regulator said in its statement.
With an administration focused on shrinking the federal workforce and cutting regulation, there’s a danger this may again go too far.
Out of all the billions of dollars that Boeing has lost and paid out because it cut corners in the past, would it be too much of a burden to finance additional FAA inspectors? Wouldn’t the FAA have more confidence to raise production limits on the 737 Max if it had more of its own inspectors handling airworthiness certifications?
These next couple of years are make or break for Boeing. If the aircraft company’s production ramp-up goes smoothly, it will soon be rolling in cash. If there’s a snag or another mishap, it would be a serious setback.
The FAA needs to take off the leash at some point, but perhaps it still needs to be held tight during this initial effort to boost production. ©Bloomberg
The author is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist writing about the industrial and transportation sectors.
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